JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS
Glenwood Leadership Academy fourth-grade students tour the American Legacy Magazine’s “Know Your History” Mobile Museum Thursday at the Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center during Black History Month. The mobile exhibit offers an opportunity for students to learn about the contributions of African Americans through a guided tour, photos, memorabilia and learning stations.

2013 Jason Clark

EVANSVILLE - Nykeia Baker, a fourth-grade student at Glenwood Leadership Academy, learned Thursday afternoon that Bessie Coleman was the first black female pilot to blaze a path for African American women in the sky.

Baker, 10, was visiting American Legacy Magazine's "Know Your History" Mobile Museum at the Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center with her classmates to learn more about the historical contributions of African Americans during Black History Month.

The mobile museum, which is housed in a semi truck trailer, started its national tour Feb. 8 in Ohio stopped in Evansville Thursday. It will be at the Technical Center through today for area students to tour during the day and will be open to the public free of charge from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit is wheelchair accessible.

Curator Michael Washington said the mobile museum teaches people about the magazine and that it targets the cultural issues and historic values of African Americans through interactive displays on the trailer and often tangible displays trigger students' brains about people they have studied in class.

"We talk about the prominent people that have made a change and made a difference past, present and future," Washington said. "Students also have an opportunity to relate to something that they've learned inside the classroom."

The tour showcases the mobile museum of memorabilia and interactive learning stations, photos and video focusing on the contributions of African American pioneers including people in aviation, sports and science. The stop in Evansville is funded through the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and was brought to the city through the efforts of EVSC School Board Member Karen Ragland.

"We so appreciate Karen Ragland's efforts to bring this unique experience to Evansville and also acknowledge the work of Dionne Blue, EVSC's chief diversity officer, for all of the behind the scenes effort that makes an event like this possible," said EVSC Superintendent David Smith.

Blue said nine schools will tour the "Know Your History" mobile museum while it's in Evansville, and each school is expected to bring between 60-80 students, as well as two after school groups. The trailer includes an American Legacy cover exhibit, "Always in our Sight: The Fight for Civil Rights," an exhibit of artifacts and memorabilia from slavery to civil rights courtesy of the Gene Alexander Peters Collection, Black History in Aviation exhibit, Buffalo Soldiers Exhibit and a black history trivia wheel.

Kendall Miller, 9, said the museum was fun, plus she got to spin the wheel and won a lunchbox. J'Shyrhe Mitchell, 10, was surprised the museum was a trailer, but enjoyed it. She learned that Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play professional baseball.

American Legacy Magazine showcases African-American history and culture through featuring stories of men and women and their struggles, triumphs and accomplishments.

"That's the funny thing about history, there's life and then there's death," Washington told the students. "But even through history, we all have something that we can learn through their life and through their death."

After spending time in the museum, Smith learned more about the Tuskegee Airmen. He was happy to see a computer on the trailer for students to use to broaden their horizons by doing more research on people they saw or talked about in the museum. Smith hopes it will spark an interest in history instead of all the focus on people in pop culture.

"Contributions from the past are not known widely and they should be," he said. "There's just such an emphasis on pop culture that we tend to think that that's all there is, and there's so much more."